Partnership for Assessment of

Readiness for College and Careers

Grade 10
English Language Arts/Literacy
Narrative Writing Task

2017 Released Items

 English Language Arts/Literacy

2017 Released Items: Grade 10 Narrative Writing Task

The Narrative Writing Task focuses on one literary text. Students read the
text or watch a video, answer questions, and write a narrative response that
is tied to and draws on the text/video.

The 2017 blueprint for PARCC’s grade 10 Narrative Writing Task includes
Evidence-Based Selected Response/Technology-Enhanced Constructed
Response items as well as one Prose Constructed Response prompt.

Included in this document:

• Answer key and standards alignment
• PDFs of each item with the associated text

Additional related materials not included in this document:

• Sample scored student responses with practice papers
• PARCC Scoring Rubric for Prose Constructed Response Items
• Guide to English Language Arts/Literacy Released Items: Understanding
Scoring 2016
• PARCC English Language Arts/Literacy Assessment: General Scoring
Rules for the 2016 Summative Assessment
 English Language Arts/Literacy

PARCC Release Items Answer and Alignment Document

ELA/Literacy: Grade 10

Text Type: NWT

Passage(s): “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad”
Item Code Answer(s) Standards/Evidence
Statement Alignment
VF821009 Item Type: EBSR RL 10.1.1
Part A: B RL 10.5.1
Part B: B

VF820997 Item Type: EBSR RL 10.1.1

Part A: D RL 10.3.1
Part B: B RL 10.5.1

VF821039 Item Type: EBSR RL 10.1.1

Part A: A RL 10.2.1
Part B: D RL 10.3.4

VF821064 Item Type: EBSR RL 10.1.1

Part A: C RL 10.9.1
Part B: A

VH001877 Item Type: PCR Refer to Grade 10

Scoring Rubric

VH004520 Item Type: EBSR (additional item) RL 10.1.1

Part A: B RL 10.4.1
Part B: D
 English Language Arts/Literacy

Today you will view the painting “House by the Railroad” and read
the poem “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad” (1925).
As you read, pay close attention to the information in the poem as
you answer the questions to prepare to write a narrative story.

Read the poem “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad” (1925).
Then answer the questions.

Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad (1925)

by Edward Hirsch

Out here in the exact middle of the day,

This strange, gawky house has the expression
Of someone being stared at, someone holding
His breath underwater, hushed and expectant;
5 This house is ashamed of itself, ashamed
Of its fantastic mansard rooftop
And its pseudo-Gothic porch, ashamed
of its shoulders and large, awkward hands.
But the man behind the easel is relentless;
10 He is as brutal as sunlight, and believes

GO ON ►
 English Language Arts/Literacy

The house must have done something horrible

To the people who once lived here
Because now it is so desperately empty,
It must have done something to the sky
15 Because the sky, too, is utterly vacant
And devoid of meaning. There are no
Trees or shrubs anywhere—the house
Must have done something against the earth.
All that is present is a single pair of tracks
20 Straightening into the distance. No trains pass.
Now the stranger returns to this place daily
Until the house begins to suspect
That the man, too, is desolate, desolate
And even ashamed. Soon the house starts
25 To stare frankly at the man. And somehow
The empty white canvas slowly takes on
The expression of someone who is unnerved,
Someone holding his breath underwater.
And then one day the man simply disappears.
30 He is a last afternoon shadow moving
Across the tracks, making its way
Through the vast, darkening fields.
This man will paint other abandoned mansions,
And faded cafeteria windows, and poorly lettered
35 Storefronts on the edges of small towns.
Always they will have this same expression,
The utterly naked look of someone
Being stared at, someone American and gawky,
Someone who is about to be left alone
Again, and can no longer stand it.

“Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad (1925)” from WILD GRATITUDE by
Edward Hirsch, copyright © 1985 by Edward Hirsch. Used by permission of
Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of
Random House LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Art: © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/ Art resource, NY

GO ON ►
 English Language Arts/Literacy
VF821009

1. Part A
Which sentence describes a significant change that occurs in lines 30
through 39?

A. The poem shifts from the concrete to the abstract.

B. The poem transitions from the present tense to the future.
C. The speaker directly addresses the reader.
D. The speaker questions the assertions he had made earlier.

Part B
What does the change identified in Part A suggest about the speaker’s view
of Edward Hopper?

A. It suggests the speaker’s opinion that Hopper is a representative

twentieth-century American artist.
B. It suggests the speaker’s view that Hopper’s unique perspective will
have a lasting influence on the way people view ordinary subjects.
C. It suggests the speaker’s belief that Hopper was drawn to certain kinds
of subjects for his painting.
D. It suggests the speaker’s conviction that Hopper would be indebted to
the influence of other artists for years to come.

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 English Language Arts/Literacy
VF820997

2. Part A
Which statement best describes how the character of the house develops
over the course of the poem?

A. The house grows increasingly distant and soon withdraws from the
artist.
B. The house is proud and struggles to defy the artist’s gaze.
C. The house grows wistful and wishes the artist would portray it in a
flattering light.
D. The house is at first dismayed by the artist’s gaze but then begins to
return it.

Part B
How does the author use structure to make the house seem alive?

A. He provides vivid visual details to describe the house.

B. He gives the house human characteristics.
C. He portrays the artist’s growing affection for the house.
D. He lists elements around the house that suggest physical discomfort.

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 English Language Arts/Literacy
VF821039

3. Part A
Which sentence states an important theme of the poem?

A. A work of art can provide insight into the mind of the artist.
B. Forgiving one another for mistakes is a vital part of being human.
C. What some consider their strengths might be viewed by others as
personal weaknesses.
D. Artists must work to see the everyday items of the world as objects of
true beauty.

Part B
Which lines in the poem most clearly emphasize this theme?

A. lines 13–16
B. lines 21–24
C. lines 33–36
D. lines 37–40

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 English Language Arts/Literacy
VF821064

4. Part A
Which phrase describes an aspect of the house that is unique to its
representation in the poem?

A. Hirsch’s poem presents details of the house’s architecture.

B. Hirsch’s poem provides a view of the house’s interior.
C. Hirsch’s poem describes the house as having human characteristics and
emotions.
D. Hirsch’s poem emphasizes the significance of the house’s geographical
location.

Part B
Which line from the poem most clearly exemplifies the aspect of the house
indicated by the answer to Part A?

A. “Of someone being stared at, someone holding” (line 3)

B. “But the man behind the easel is relentless” (line 9)
C. “Trees or shrubs anywhere—the house” (line 17)
D. “All that is present is a single pair of tracks” (line 19)

GO ON ►
 English Language Arts/Literacy

VH001877

5. In the poem “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad (1925),” the
speaker, who has been studying the painting “House by the Railroad,” claims
that the house now is so desperately empty. Write a narrative story that
describes the house in the past when it was once occupied. In your story,
use details from the poem and painting to help you describe what it must
have been like to live in the house before it was abandoned.

GO ON ►
 English Language Arts/Literacy

VH004520
Extra Item

6. Part A
What is the meaning of the word brutal as it is used in line 10 of the poem?

A. extremely harmful
B. harshly truthful
C. having conviction
D. lacking concern

Part B
Which word elsewhere in the poem has a meaning similar to brutal?

A. horrible (line 11)

B. desperately (line 13)
C. desolate (line 23)
D. frankly (line 25)

STOP